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A Brief Interview with Gloria Steinem Alexis Ray: What inspired you to become an activist? Gloria Steinem: Well, first of all when something is not right, someone needs to take a stand. But, it began when my parents divorced- I was 8 years old. I lived with my mother in poverty. My mother became very depressed and was institutionalized, so I moved with my sister in Washington. I went to Smith College and received a fellowship for 2 years in India. Living in India broadened my horizons. I realized that the living conditions that we Americans take for granted are not obtainable for everyone. "America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people." I returned home ready to fight social injustice.
Alexis Ray: Upon your return home from India what issues are you most concerned with?
Gloria Steinem: Inequality in our nation is the issue I am most concerned about, and I plan on fighting for this discrimination.
Alexis Ray: How do you feel about inequality for women?
Gloria Steinem: I have been turned down from job assignments, been refused service in public restaurants, and turned away from apartment rentals because I am a woman. Unfortunately, other women have it worse than me. It is hard to believe that we women live in a society where we are not treated as 1st class citizens. All I desire is a country where women and men are both treated equally and have equal opportunities to succeed. I’m not asking for women to take the place of man, but that women have a say in what they want. When women get married they lose most of their civil rights, like they are becoming a child again. This should not be acceptable in our nation- look at Sweden, which has begun to give women the rights they deserve. Anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer studied the few peaceful human tribes and the one characteristic they all had in common was equality. Women’s rights were not separate.
Alexis Ray: What are your major goals for equality?
Gloria Steinem: My utopian world would be one in which women get better jobs, they receive better pay for the appalling jobs they take on, and they would have shorter workdays. Throughout history, women have taken unfortunate jobs with low pay. For example, I was assigned to write about the Playboy Bunnies. So, I applied for the job, got hired, and held the position for three weeks. These women were working in deprived conditions, spending long hours pleasuring rich men. I am not saying women should not be Playboy Bunnies, but they should have the opportunity for a better job. Children have been deprived from their fathers. Women and men should equalize their time with their children so women can rid the label of a “housewife” if they do not wish to be a housewife.
Alexis Ray: Why do you feel so strongly about the ERA?
Gloria Steinem: I feel so strongly about the ERA because I truly believe women should have the same rights as men. There are myths about how women are equal to men, but this is not the fact- “equal pay for equal work, equal chance for advancement, and equal training or encouragement is obscenely scarce in every field, even those—like food and fashion industries—that are supposedly “feminine.” In our society girls have been raised to be housewives. This should not be a normal society. Women should be encouraged for their dreams of becoming a doctor instead of being convinced they could only be a nurse. As you know, Phyllis Schafly is an anti-feminist activist. She opposes the ERA because it would create a unisex environment, it would expose women and girls to the draft system. But why shouldn’t girls be exposed? Work Cited
Gloria Steinem
Alexis' Profile | Scroll down the page for Lindsey's Profile
A Brief Interview with Gloria Steinem
Alexis Ray: What inspired you to become an activist?
Gloria Steinem: Well, first of all when something is not right, someone needs to take a stand. But, it began when my parents divorced- I was 8 years old. I lived with my mother in poverty. My mother became very depressed and was institutionalized, so I moved with my sister in Washington. I went to Smith College and received a fellowship for 2 years in India. Living in India broadened my horizons. I realized that the living conditions that we Americans take for granted are not obtainable for everyone. "America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people." I returned home ready to fight social injustice.
Alexis Ray: Upon your return home from India what issues are you most concerned with?
Gloria Steinem: Inequality in our nation is the issue I am most concerned about, and I plan on fighting for this discrimination.
Alexis Ray: How do you feel about inequality for women?
Gloria Steinem: I have been turned down from job assignments, been refused service in public restaurants, and turned away from apartment rentals because I am a woman. Unfortunately, other women have it worse than me. It is hard to believe that we women live in a society where we are not treated as 1st class citizens. All I desire is a country where women and men are both treated equally and have equal opportunities to succeed. I’m not asking for women to take the place of man, but that women have a say in what they want. When women get married they lose most of their civil rights, like they are becoming a child again. This should not be acceptable in our nation- look at Sweden, which has begun to give women the rights they deserve. Anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer studied the few peaceful human tribes and the one characteristic they all had in common was equality. Women’s rights were not separate.
Alexis Ray: What are your major goals for equality?
Gloria Steinem: My utopian world would be one in which women get better jobs, they receive better pay for the appalling jobs they take on, and they would have shorter workdays. Throughout history, women have taken unfortunate jobs with low pay. For example, I was assigned to write about the Playboy Bunnies. So, I applied for the job, got hired, and held the position for three weeks. These women were working in deprived conditions, spending long hours pleasuring rich men. I am not saying women should not be Playboy Bunnies, but they should have the opportunity for a better job. Children have been deprived from their fathers. Women and men should equalize their time with their children so women can rid the label of a “housewife” if they do not wish to be a housewife.
Alexis Ray: Why do you feel so strongly about the ERA?
Gloria Steinem: I feel so strongly about the ERA because I truly believe women should have the same rights as men. There are myths about how women are equal to men, but this is not the fact- “equal pay for equal work, equal chance for advancement, and equal training or encouragement is obscenely scarce in every field, even those—like food and fashion industries—that are supposedly “feminine.” In our society girls have been raised to be housewives. This should not be a normal society. Women should be encouraged for their dreams of becoming a doctor instead of being convinced they could only be a nurse. As you know, Phyllis Schafly is an anti-feminist activist. She opposes the ERA because it would create a unisex environment, it would expose women and girls to the draft system. But why shouldn’t girls be exposed?
Work Cited
“All Our Problems Stem from the Same Sex Based Myths: Gloria Steinem Delineates
American Gender Myths during ERA Hearings”. History Matters. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, The “Equal Rights” Amendment:
Hearings before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments of the
Committee on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 2d sess., May 5, 6, and 7, 1970. 15 February 2009. < http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/7025/>.
“Gloria Steinem.” Gale Cengage Learning. 5 February 2009. Encyclopedia of World
Biography, Gale. 5 February 2009.
<http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/bio/steinem_g.htm>.
“Gloria Steinem, In Support of the Equal Rights Amendment, 1970”. Prenhall. 5
February 2009. <http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/faragher7/chapter30/custom4/deluxe-content.html>.
“What it would be like if Women Win.” Time CNN. Time Inc. 5 February 2009.
<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876786,00.html>.
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